Mountain top home anyone?
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Speaking of houses, if I were on the market for a retirement abode in Santa Fe about now, I could not afford the place we bought in 2018.
Timing is almost everything, and luck is rather important to timing.
And no, it's not big enough to be a WTF retirement home.
I don't study real estate economics, but I'm fascinated by the shifts in demand that happen rather suddenly. After the fact, it's easy to "armchair quarterback" the reasons why certain markets become hot while others go cold.
In Santa Fe I'm hearing a lot of angry comments (Nextdoor for instance) about "evil rich people buying their second homes in the area and destroying things for locals." I remind people that every "mansion" sale raises the property value of that house (not yours), which increases the city's tax base, and that a hefty portion of the tax base comes from those homes. Middle class property taxes are subsidized by the rather small fraction of the housing base that carries a median "mansion" price. And as some have pointed out, if you don't like local politicians and their policies, those "second home" owners don't vote. The people who are complaining loudly are the ones who produced the current politics of the city.
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" Middle class property taxes are subsidized by the rather small fraction of the housing base that carries a median "mansion" price. And as some have pointed out, if you don't like local politicians and their policies, those "second home" owners don't vote. The people who are complaining loudly are the ones who produced the current politics of the city."
Good point. -
@Mik said in Mountain top home anyone?:
My biggest impression was that the house didn't know whether it wanted to be modern minimalist or Biltmore opulence.
That's quite a confusion!
@Piano-Dad said in Mountain top home anyone?:
@Mik said in Mountain top home anyone?:
My biggest impression was that the house didn't know whether it wanted to be modern minimalist or Biltmore opulence.
That's quite a confusion!
I suspect spousal differences.
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Speaking of houses, if I were on the market for a retirement abode in Santa Fe about now, I could not afford the place we bought in 2018.
Timing is almost everything, and luck is rather important to timing.
And no, it's not big enough to be a WTF retirement home.
I don't study real estate economics, but I'm fascinated by the shifts in demand that happen rather suddenly. After the fact, it's easy to "armchair quarterback" the reasons why certain markets become hot while others go cold.
In Santa Fe I'm hearing a lot of angry comments (Nextdoor for instance) about "evil rich people buying their second homes in the area and destroying things for locals." I remind people that every "mansion" sale raises the property value of that house (not yours), which increases the city's tax base, and that a hefty portion of the tax base comes from those homes. Middle class property taxes are subsidized by the rather small fraction of the housing base that carries a median "mansion" price. And as some have pointed out, if you don't like local politicians and their policies, those "second home" owners don't vote. The people who are complaining loudly are the ones who produced the current politics of the city.
What you’re seeing is the rapidly widening gap between the rich and everyone else. The most recent tax bill will only widen if further.
Now add in a helping of overseas money…
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It's become a harrowing gap now and denying that would actually be stupid or at least ignorant, or maybe willfully ignorant. People know or should know about the material circumstances of the citizens including the most elderly because even the MSN isn't bothering to hide them.
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What you’re seeing is the rapidly widening gap between the rich and everyone else. The most recent tax bill will only widen if further.
Now add in a helping of overseas money…
@Steve-Miller said in Mountain top home anyone?:
What you’re seeing is the rapidly widening gap between the rich and everyone else. The most recent tax bill will only widen if further.
Now add in a helping of overseas money
Rising income inequality is part of the story of higher prices for prestige goods of all sorts, including "luxury" home purchases, but that's actually not what the article is about. It's about why this "mansion" market is moving in different directions in different locales. Income inequality has surged over the past 45 years, so it's not a new phenomenon. Also, the past decade has seen some closure of the 80/20 gap. This market is not fueled by the tiny group of .1% multi-multi millionaires and billionaires. It's driven by people in the top 5%, and there are a lot more of them.
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Meanwhile, the rest of us need shelter, need utilities, need to eat, need transportation, and need medical care.
So, other than the love of architecture, design, and dreams, who really gives AF?
The impoverishment and dispossession of vast numbers of the population is certainly related to policy directives meant to make the oligarchs even more powerful and more wealthy.
Many or most in the middle and upper-middle classes think everyone simply gets what they deserve.
Most members of the bourgeoisie wouldn't benefit from questioning their privileged lives and wouldn't benefit from giving AF about the general population.
Read an 18th or 19th century English novel. It's always been this way.
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Recently an article came out saying that Montana now has the most unaffordable homes in the entire country. That's been my impression for quite some time, as I have also been looking at markets that have been historically considered unaffordable, like MA and NY and CA. Apparently since Covid, Montana property values have gone up over 60 percent, and higher in some towns. We're all choking on the resulting property taxes.
This was I place I moved to (in part) because a freelance writer with inconsistent and sketchy income could afford to buy herself a house. No longer. It seems weird to be looking at houses close to the Pacific Ocean and near San Francisco that we can now afford if we sell what we have. Five years ago that was unthinkable. It was the reverse. The Californians were moving here because they could pay cash and have some left over after selling their homes in CA.
If only there were fewer people and less traffic in those places, moving would make total sense.
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Was reared in a 4500 sq ft home outside a small town in an area of poverty. Poverty there "competed" with Appalachia for the worst area in the country. It may still. The house had hardwood floors, tiled bathrooms, etc. and was overbuilt. It was kept up to date. My family was the employers.
I think I paid more than anyone in my family ever paid for a home in 2006. The value has almost tripled and may by the time I sell. -
@Daniel.
My family history is probably loaded with things I do not want to know. There is a museum at Murray State in Kentucky known as the Wrather museum. Was told a professor named Wrather left the money for the museum. Have never found the time to go. Have been less than 40 miles away a number of times. I was told very little family history. hmmm....
